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You've Enrolled in Obamacare - The Doctor Won't See You Now

The Libre Initiative recently posted a survey taken by the Medical Group Management Association (MGMA). The survey conducted last month polled over 1,000 physician groups, representing more than 47,500 practicing physicians. Part of the Legislative and Executive Advocacy Response Network, the MGMA survey focused on Obamacare insurance exchange implementation. The results do not bode well for Obamacare enrollees.

Only 16.1% of physicians polled believe Obamacare will have a positive impact on their practices. Only 29.2% have confirmed they will indeed accept the insurance plans being offered on Obamacare exchanges. Of those who will not be accepting Obamacare, 64% cite, "Concerns about the administrative and regulatory burdens related to these products," as the reason why.

Very few of the respondents viewed Obamacare as an opportunity to help underserved patient populations, replace charity care or reach a new segment of the market. A statistic that runs contrary to Democratic talking points. Overwhelmingly, the physicians surveyed viewed Obamacare as a major barrier to their patients. 85% believe low reimbursement rates will place their practices in financial risk, 83% are concerned about financial liability during the 90 day grace period for exchange enrollees and 82.5% are concerned about the financial burden from patient collections due to unusually high deductibles.

We've already seen physicians turning away Medicare patients in droves. And for good reason. "Frustration with [Medicare’s] payment rates and pushback against mounting rules,” explained the Wall Street Journal, account for the trend in denying Medicare. With Obamacare regulations over seven feet tall, it's hard to imagine physicians will be tolerant of even more burdensome regulation.

With Obamacare's implementation barely more than a week old, it's already a tragedy in the making. The President's hallmark legislation sold as a means to help the disadvantaged, is pushing physicians into a corner and reducing access to care. The end result will be more expensive health insurance for everyone, fewer doctors and a system that excludes many, including those the law was 'meant' to help.

Pushing physicians into a corner hell!!!(pardon my western French), more like pushing the brightest amoung them (the ones that'll be most sorely missed and needed within a few years of this) into retirement.....pushing patients into reduced options, reduced quality single-payer care.....and pushing socialist cradle to grave control of every once free citizens lifestyle. Time to call this for what it was meant to be from Day 1: Ultimate control of the life of every American citizen........funded by same citizens. Now just shut up and TAKE IT!!!

Following the news the UnitedHealth Group, the largest insurance company in the United States, is scaling back its ObamaCare marketing and considering withdrawing from the exchanges, FreedomWorks CEO Adam Brandon commented:

The irreparable structural flaws of ObamaCare are being revealed at a frightening pace. 12 of the state insurance co-ops have failed, insurance premiums just keep rising, enrollment is predicted to be flat, the majority of newly insured Americans have actually just been shoved into Medicaid, and the insurance companies are asking for billions of dollars in taxpayer bailouts to forestall even steeper price hikes. ObamaCare is dismantling and destabilizing the entire infrastructure of our health care system, and it’s hurting real people.

The House of Representatives’ ObamaCare reconciliation bill doesn’t go far enough. The Senate now has the opportunity to improve upon it by sending legislation that fully repeals ObamaCare to the president’s desk. Unfortunately, some Senate Republicans are content to go along with the House’s timid piecemeal approach.

Last week, I wrote about how insurance companies are receiving only a fraction of the money they asked for to compensate them for losses under the Affordable Care Act, and how this was a consequence of structural weaknesses in the design of the law. Now, analysts from ratings firm Standard and Poor's are saying that the risk corridor fund charged with providing this money is nearly exhausted, and that congressional action will likely be required to refill it sometime next year.

Ever since home brewing was legalized in the late 1970s, the craft beer industry has become one of America's most vibrant examples of entrepreneurship and small business. It doesn't take much more than some barley, some hops, and a dream to start your own private microbrewery, and if you're good at it, you could become a nationally recognized brand.

An old rhetorical question asks: "If social Security is such a great deal, why is it mandatory?" A topically apt paraphrase of this would be: "if ObamaCare is so good for health care, why is the president still struggling to sell it five years after it became law?" What does it say about a policy that people refuse to take advantage of - and I use the word "advantage" very loosely - without significant arm twisting? Even though it has been made flat out illegal not to purchase health insurance, millions of people are still staying far, far away from ObamaCare's insurance exchanges, because they know that the legal penalty will actually be less painful than participating in the government-controlled health insurance market.

It's always a good idea to look at the incentive structure behind any public policy. Analyzing how people are induced to behave, and the consequences of those behaviors, is a pretty good indication of whether a plan will succeed or fail. ObamaCare is too vast an example to take all at once, but new information sheds light on a particular piece of the health care law is contributing to the skyrocketing price of insurance.

Much of the recent news covering the failures of ObamaCare have focused on the collapse of the nonprofit cooperatives authorized by the law. Just last week, for example, Utah's cooperative became the tenth to fail. Billions of taxpayer dollars were spent to get these insurance cooperatives off the ground, a compromise for Democrats who wanted a single-payer option, and they have proven to be unsustainable. But another failure of the law is rising insurance premiums on the individual health insurance market.

Once upon a time, ObamaCare created 23 non-profit health insurance co-ops that were supposed to increase coverage while reducing costs. Doesn't that sound nice? Well, this is a good time to keep in mind the old saying "if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is."